Agents Overview

What Are You.com Agents?

You.com Agents are AI-powered assistants that combine real-time web search, reasoning capabilities, and specialized tools to provide comprehensive answers to complex queries. Unlike simple search APIs that return raw results, Agents synthesize information, cite sources, and can deliver structured responses tailored to your needs.

Agents turn search results into actionable answers. We offer 3 kinds: Express for fast responses, Advanced for in-depth research and Custom for domain-specific workflows.

Agent Types

Express Agent

Purpose: Fast, reliable answers with citations optimized for speed and efficiency.

The Express Agent is designed to balance speed and depth. It searches the web, processes results, and delivers a concise answer with relevant citations—typically within 2-3 seconds.

When to use:

• Chatbots requiring quick responses
• FAQ answering systems
• Real-time information lookup
• Applications where latency matters

Example use case: A customer support bot that answers “What are your business hours?” by searching your website and returning a formatted answer with a link to your hours page.

Learn more: Express Agent API

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from youdotcom import You
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from youdotcom.types.typesafe_models import (
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    AgentType,
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    stream_text_tokens
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)
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with You(
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    api_key_auth="Your You.com API Key",
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) as you:
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    res = you.agents.runs.create(
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        agent=AgentType.EXPRESS,
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        input="Teach me how to make an omelet",
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        stream=True,
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    )
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    # A built-in helper to handle streamed responses
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    stream_text_tokens(res)

Advanced Agent

Purpose: Deep research with extensive citations and comprehensive analysis.

The Advanced Agent is built for thorough investigations. It uses multiple tools—web search, research capabilities, and compute functions—to gather information, synthesize findings, and produce detailed reports with extensive citations.

When to use:

• Market research reports
• Competitive analysis
• Academic research assistance
• Complex technical explanations
• Multi-step reasoning tasks

Example use case: A research platform that generates comprehensive reports on emerging technologies, complete with data analysis, trend identification, and cited sources.

Available tools:

• Research Tool: Deep investigation with source analysis
• Compute Tool: Data processing and calculations

Learn more: Advanced Agent API

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from youdotcom import You
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from youdotcom.models import ComputeTool, ResearchTool
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from youdotcom.types.typesafe_models import (
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    AgentType,
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    SearchEffort,
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    Verbosity,
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    stream_text_tokens,
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)
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with You(
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    api_key_auth="Your You.com API Key",
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) as you:
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    res = you.agents.runs.create(
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            agent=AgentType.ADVANCED,
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            input="Analyze the impact of microplastics on marine ecosystems.",
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            stream=True,
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            tools=[
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                ResearchTool(
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                    search_effort=SearchEffort.HIGH,
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                    report_verbosity=Verbosity.HIGH,
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                ),
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            ]
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    )
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    # A built-in helper to handle streamed responses
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    stream_text_tokens(res)

Custom Agent

Purpose: Personalized AI agents with custom instructions and tailored capabilities.

Custom Agents let you define your own system instructions, choose which tools to enable, and configure behavior for specific domains or workflows. Create specialized assistants for legal research, medical information, code review, or any domain where you need consistent, customized responses.

When to use:

• Domain-specific applications (legal, medical, financial)
• Branded AI assistants with specific tone/style
• Workflows requiring consistent instructions
• Applications needing tool control (enable/disable search, research, compute)

Example use case: A legal research assistant that searches case law, follows specific citation formats, and applies jurisdictional constraints based on your custom instructions.

Customization options:

• Custom Instructions: Define personality, expertise, output format
• Model Choice: Select underlying LLM (subject to availability)
• Response Style: Control verbosity, tone, and formatting

Learn more: Custom Agent API

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from youdotcom import You
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from youdotcom.types.typesafe_models import stream_text_tokens
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# Initialize the SDK with your API key
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with You(api_key_auth="your-api-key-here") as you:
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    # Create a custom agent run and stream the response
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    res = you.agents.runs.create(
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        # This is a custom agent we've created for you to try
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        # Replace it with your own
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        agent="63773261-b4de-4d8f-9dfd-cff206a5cb51",
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        input="Teach me how to make an omelet",
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        stream=True,
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    )
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    # A built-in helper to handle streamed responses
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    stream_text_tokens(res)

Common features across all Agents

Streaming responses

All agents support streaming via Server-Sent Events (SSE), allowing you to process responses incrementally as they’re generated. This provides a better user experience with real-time feedback.

Stream event types:

• response.created - Agent started processing
• response.starting - Response generation beginning
• response.output_item.added - New output item created
• response.output_text.delta - Text chunk available
• response.output_item.done - Output item complete
• response.done - Full response complete

Citations & Sources

All agents provide citations with their responses, including:

• Source URLs
• Page titles
• Relevant snippets
• Favicon URLs
• Page age/freshness

Error Handling

Agents return standard HTTP error codes and structured error responses. See Error Reference for details.

Choosing the Right Agent

Pricing & Rate limits

Agent pricing varies by type and usage. Express agents are optimized for cost-efficiency, while Advanced agents consume more resources due to their comprehensive research capabilities. Custom agents fall in between.

For detailed pricing information and rate limits, visit you.com/pricing or contact api@you.com.

Next Steps